It is well known that most of the bodily states in multicellular organisms, including most disease states, are effected by proteins. Such proteins, either acting directly or through their enzymatic or other functions, contribute in major proportion to many diseases and regulatory functions in animals and man. Classical therapeutics has generally focused upon interactions with such proteins in efforts to moderate their disease-causing or disease-potentiating functions. In newer therapeutic approaches, modulation of the actual production of such proteins is desired. By interfering with the production of proteins, the maximum therapeutic effect might be obtained with minimal side effects. It is the general object of such therapeutic approaches to interfere with or otherwise modulate gene expression which would lead to undesired protein formation.
One method for inhibiting specific gene expression is with the use of oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotides complementary to a specific target messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence are used. Several oligonucleotides are currently undergoing clinical trials for such use.
Transcription factors interact with double-stranded DNA during regulation of transcription. Oligonucleotides can serve as competitive inhibitors of transcription factors to modulate the action of transcription factors. Several recent reports describe such interactions (see, Bielinska, et. al., Science 1990, 250, 997-1000; and Wu, et al., Gene 1990, 89, 203-209.)
Oligonucleotides also have found use in diagnostic tests. Such diagnostic tests can be performed using biological fluids, tissues, intact cells or isolated cellular components. As with the above gene expression inhibition, diagnostic use can take advantage of an oligonucleotide's ability to hybridize with a complementary strand of nucleic acid. Hybridization is the sequence specific hydrogen bonding of oligonucleotides via Watson-Crick and/or Hoogsteen base pairs to RNA or DNA. The bases of such base pairs are said to be complementary to one another.
Oligonucleotides are also widely used as research reagents. They are useful for understanding the function of many other biological molecules as well as in the preparation of such other biological molecules. One particular use, the use of oligonucleotides as primers in the reactions associated with polymerase chain reaction (PCR), has been the cornerstone for the establishment of an ever expanding commercial business. The use of such PCR reactions has seemingly "exploded" as more and more use of this very important biological tool is made. The uses of PCR have extended into many areas in addition to those contemplated by its Nobel laureate inventor. Examples of such new areas include forensics, paleontology, evolutionary studies and genetic counseling to name just a few. Primers are needed for each of these uses. Oligonucleotides, both natural and synthetic, serve as the primers.
Oligonucleotides also are used in other laboratory procedures. A number of these uses are described in common laboratory manuals such as Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, Second Ed., J. Sambrook, et al., Eds., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1989; and Current Protocols In Molecular Biology, F. M. Ausubel, et. al., Eds., Current Publications, 1993. Such uses include Synthetic Oligonucleotide Probes, Screening Expression Libraries with Antibodies and Oligonucleotides, DNA Sequencing, In Vitro Amplification of DNA by the Polymerase Chain Reaction and Site-directed Mutagenesis of Cloned DNA from Book 2 of Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, ibid. and DNA-Protein Interactions and The Polymerase Chain Reaction from Vol. 2 of Current Protocols In Molecular Biology, ibid..
To supply the users of oligonucleotides, many scientific journals now contain advertisements for either oligonucleotide precursors or for custom-synthesized oligonucleotides. This has become an important commercial use of oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotides can be synthesized to have properties that are tailored for the desired use. Thus, a number of chemical modifications have been introduced into oligonucleotides to increase their usefulness in diagnostics, as research reagents, and as therapeutic entities. These modifications are designed, for example, to increase binding to a target nucleic acid strand, to assist in identification of the oligonucleotide or an oligonucleotide-target complex, to increase cell penetration, to provide stability against nucleases and other enzymes that degrade or interfere with the structure or activity of the oligonucleotides, to provide a mode of disruption (terminating event) once sequence-specifically bound to a target, or to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of the oligonucleotides.
Since they exist as diastereomers, phosphorothioate, methylphosphonate, phosphotriester, phosphoramidate and other phosphorus oligonucleotides synthesized using known, automated techniques result in mixtures of Rp and Sp diastereomers at the individual phosphorothioate, methylphosphonate, phosphotriester, phosphoramidate or other phosphorus linkages. Thus, a 15-mer oligonucleotide containing 14 asymmetric linkages has 2.sup.14, i.e. 16,384, possible stereoisomers. It is possible that oligomers having diastereomerically enriched linkages could possess advantages in hybridizing to a target mRNA or DNA. Accordingly, there is a need for such oligomers.
Miller, P. S., McParland, K. B., Jayaraman, K., and Ts'o, P. O. P (1981), Biochemistry, 20:1874, found that small di-, tri- and tetramethylphosphonate and phosphotriester oligonucleotides hybridize to unmodified strands with greater affinity than natural phosphodiester oligonucleotides. Similar increased hybridization was noted for small phosphotriester and phosphoramidate oligonucleotides; Koole, L. H., van Genderen, M. H. P., Reiners, R. G., and Buck, H. M. (1987), Proc. K. Ned. Adad. Wet., 90:41; Letsinger, R. L., Bach, S. A., and Eadie, J. S. (1986), Nucleic Acids Res., 14:3487; and Jager, A., Levy, M. J., and Hecht, S. M. (1988), Biochemistry, 27:7237. The effects of the diastereomers of undefined stereochemistry on hybridization becomes even more complex as chain length increases.
Bryant, F. R. and Benkovic, S. J. (1979), Biochemistry, 18:2825 studied the effects of diesterase on the diastereomers of ATP. Published patent application PCT/US88/03634 discloses dimers and trimers of 2',5'-linked diastereomeric adenosine units. Niewiarowski, W., Lesnikowski, Z. J., Wilk, A., Guga, P., Okruszek, A., Uznanski, B., and Stec, W. (1987), Acta Biochimica Polonia, 34:217, synthesized dimers of thymidine having high diastereomeric excess, as did Fujii, M., Ozaki, K., Sekine, M., and Hata, T. (1987), Tetrahedron, 43:3395.
Stec, W. J., Zon, G., and Uznanski, B. (1985), J. Chromatography, 326:263, have reported the synthesis of certain mixtures of phosphorothioates or methyphosphonate oligonucleotides and have separated them by chromatography. However, they were only able to separate the diastereomers of certain small oligomers having a limited number of diastereomerically pure phosphorus linkages.
In a preliminary report, J. W. Stec, Oligonucleotides as antisense inhibitors of gene expression: Therapeutic implications, meeting abstracts, Jun. 18-21, 1989, noted that a non-sequence-specific thymidine homopolymer octamer--i.e. a (dT).sub.8 -mer, having "all-except-one" Rp configuration methylphosphonate linkages--formed a thermodynamically more stable hybrid with a 15-mer deoxyadenosine homopolymer--i.e. a d(A).sub.15 -mer--than did a similar thymidine homopolymer having "all-except-one" Sp configuration methylphosphonate linkages. The hybrid between the "all-except-one" Rp (dT).sub.8 -mer and the d(A).sub.15 -mer had a Tm of 38.degree. C. while the Tm of the "all-except-one" Sp (dT).sub.8 -mer and the d(A).sub.15 -mer was &lt;0.degree. C. The hybrid between a (dT).sub.8 -mer having natural phosphodiester linkages, i.e. octathymidylic acid, and the d(A).sub.15 -mer was reported to have a Tm of 14.degree. C. The "all-except-one" thymidine homopolymer octamers were formed from two thymidine methylphosphonate tetrameric units with high diastereomeric excess linked by a natural phosphodiester linkage.
Six or more nucleotides units are generally necessary for an oligonucleotide to be of optimal use in applications involving hybridization. It is often preferred to have even more nucleoside units for best performance, often as many as 10 to 30. Because it has not been possible to stereochemically resolve more than two or three adjacent phosphorus linkages, the effects of induced chirality in the phosphorus linkages of chemically synthesized oligonucleotides has not been well assessed heretofore. This is because with few limited exceptions, the sequence-specific phosphorothioate, methylphosphonate, phosphotriester or phosphoramidate oligonucleotides obtained utilizing known automated synthetic techniques have been mixtures with no diastereomeric excess.
Some aspects of the use of enzymatic methods to synthesize oligonucleotides having chiral phosphorus linkages have been investigated. Burgers, P. M. J. and Eckstein, F. (1979), J. Biological Chemistry, 254:6889; and Gupta, A., DeBrosse, C., and Benkovic, S. J. (1982) J. Bio. Chem., 256:7689 enzymatically synthesized diastereomerically pure polydeoxyadenylic acid having phosphorothioate linkages. Brody, R. S. and Frey, P. S. (1981), Biochemistry, 20:1245; Eckstein, F. and Jovin, T. M. (1983), Biochemistry, 2:4546; Brody, R. S., Adler, S., Modrich, P., Stec, W. J., Leznikowski, Z. J., and Frey, P. A. (1982) Biochemistry, 21:2570-2572; and Romaniuk, P. J. and Eckstein, F. (1982) J. Biol. Chem., 257:7684-7688 all enzymatically synthesized poly TpA and poly ApT phosphorothioates while Burgers, P. M. J. and Eckstein, F. (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 75: 4798-4800 enzymatically synthesized poly UpA phosphorothioates. Cruse, W. B. T., Salisbury, T., Brown, T., Cosstick, R. Eckstein, F., and Kennard, O. (1986), J. Mol. Biol., 192:891, linked three diastereomeric Rp GpC phosphorothioate dimers via natural phosphodiester bonds into a hexamer. Most recently Ueda, T., Tohda, H., Chikazuni, N., Eckstein, R., and Watanabe, K. (1991) Nucleic Acids Research, 19:547, enzymatically synthesized RNA's having from several hundred to ten thousand nucleotides incorporating Rp linkages of high diastereomeric excess. Enzymatic synthesis, however, is disadvantageous in that it depends on suitable polymerases that may or may not be available, especially for modified nucleoside precursors.
As reviewed by W. J. Stec and A. Wiek (1994), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. English 33:709, the oxathiaphospholane method has been successful for the preparation of phosphorothioates with defined stereochemistry. However, it suffers from disadvantages, such as the non-trivial preparation of diastereomerically pure oxathiaphospholane, and the difficulty in synthesizing and isolating satisfactorily pure oligomers longer than 12-mers.
It would therefore be of great advantage to provide oligonucleotides having phosphorus linkages with controlled stereochemistry.